When the call comes, SWAT teams are ready to respond

Fifteen police departments and two sheriff’s departments on the South Shore are part of a regional organization that partners for training and response to the most dangerous situations, including armed suspects holed up in buildings.

With one phone call, police in Cohasset – a department with fewer than 20 full-time officers – could marshal resources from dozens of other departments, complete with a SWAT team, armored vehicles, search dogs and hostage negotiators.

The same goes for other small communities like Hull, and larger ones like Weymouth and Plymouth.

That’s because they’re part of the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council, a consortium of 42 police departments and the Plymouth and Norfolk county sheriff’s departments, that share resources and have officers trained to handle emergencies, whether it’s a lost child or an armed suspect holed up in a home. The council also played a role in the response to the Boston Marathon bombings last month and the massive manhunt that followed.

“For a lot of these departments, if you have a major situation, it exceeds our operational capacity,” acting Cohasset police Chief William Quigley said. “No one department can handle these giant situations. Anything that happens now, it’s going to be a regional response. It has to.”

Even Quincy, the largest department on the South Shore with about 200 officers, is part of a regional law enforcement organization. The city belongs to a group that includes Boston and several neighboring communities. That group collaborates on grants for training, runs annual drills for scenarios like a terrorist attack or a school shooting. Quincy is in the process of setting up its own SWAT team.

The Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council includes 17 South Shore and Greater Brockton police departments and stretches as far west as Milford and as far south as Plymouth. To join, a local department must have 10 percent of its officers sign on to participate in the council’s regular training exercises and responses to emergencies. Most of the training and the heavier equipment is paid for through grants.

Currently, there are about 200 officers in the consortium divided among five divisions: tactical response, traffic safety, radio communications, cyber crimes and criminal investigations.

The SWAT team members train monthly, sometimes using vacant buildings at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station. Motorcycle officers have also trained there.

When the council responds to a call, the police chief in the community where the incident is taking place is in command. And while the officers come from different departments, they train together and have a strict chain of command to prevent confusion.

Page 2 of 3 - “The response package is highly structured and it’s very, very disciplined,” said Milton Police Chief Richard Wells, a member of the council’s executive board.

A predecessor to the council was formed in 1998 following a massive labor strike in Braintree when officers from neighboring departments responded, but had no clear chain of command or assignments. The council was incorporated in its current form in 2002.

Since then, it’s helped control crowds at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004 and in the area around Fenway Park during the Red Sox’ World Series victories in 2004 and 2007.

But the week-long response to the marathon bombings was by far the largest operation the council has been involved in. It sent well over 100 officers in tactical gear, on motorcycles or leading police dogs.

The response illustrated the value for local departments of being part of the consortium, said Weymouth Police Chief Richard Grimes, also a member of the metropolitan council’s board.

“If that happened on Route 18 in Weymouth, we could garner the same amount of support here,” he said, adding that the bombing suspects could have easily headed south. “In that case, all those resources would have been in our lap.”

Perhaps the most visible part of the consortium is the SWAT component, which includes officers in body armor carrying military-style assault rifles and a BearCat, a hulking 18,000-pound armored vehicle.

A week ago, the team, along with at least two-dozen squad cars, unmarked police vehicles and SUVs responded to a Randolph condo building where police believed a possibly armed suspect had barricaded himself. Four hours later, two men were arrested and police recovered a handgun.

While that response seemed like an overreaction to some, it was an appropriate response to the situation, said Milton police Sgt. Jack Richman, a member of the council’s tactical unit.

“If there’s a report of a suspect who has a gun, we scale it very high risk and respond appropriately,” he said. “Our priority is for the safety of the public and our own personnel.”

Christian Schiavone may be reached at cschiavone@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @CSchiavo_Ledger.How the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council works

The Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council is governed by an executive board made up of chiefs of the member departments. Walpole Police Chief Richard Stillman is the current president.

Officers who are part of Metro-LEC are paid by their home departments while on calls as part of Metro-LEC.

The decision to call in assistance from the council may be made by a member department’s chief or a shift commander.

All requests go through the Wellesley Police Department’s communications center, which forwards the request to an on-duty control chief in charge of the unit whose assistance is requested. If that chief decides to send in resources, the officers are notified to respond.

Page 3 of 3 - Once at the scene, the local chief or his designee maintains command of the situation.